


The Way You Observe The World

by FollowTheFirefly



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Slow Burn, Tsukki trying overanalyze everything, and Yamaguchi being oblivious, inspired by headcanons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-20
Updated: 2016-11-20
Packaged: 2018-09-01 00:55:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8600755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FollowTheFirefly/pseuds/FollowTheFirefly
Summary: In which Yamaguchi realizes why Tsukishima always wears headphones and Tsukishima wishes Yamaguchi would realize something else.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not going to lie, this one was a bit of a challenge. I've never written for Haikyu before, so there was that. Getting Tsukki's personality was hard enough and I'm afraid I royally botched it anyway. Then I kept trying to be more descriptive without being overly descriptive and then I wondered if it was descriptive enough. And by the time I finished the three hours of editing and fleshing out ideas for it, I realized I had a completely different ending from what I started, even though I like the ending for this one a lot more. But now that I'm finished, I still really like this one. I hope it's not too horrible of a read.

“And when I get back, you’d better have those headphones off.” 

Yamaguchi spun around and sprinted off in the direction of the ramen shop, leaving Tsukishima standing by himself in the middle of the bustling street. Volleyball practice was canceled for the day because the gym was undergoing renovations, so they’d decided to grab something to eat on the way home from school. They always split the cost of their food: one bought the drinks while the other would pay for the actual meal. They’d take turns and often didn’t need to ask what the other one wanted since this was a common occurrence between the two first years.

So after they managed to shake off Sugawara, Daichi and Tanaka, who’d wanted to get the team together to hang out, Tsukishima and Yamaguchi found themselves wandering the streets, surprised that there were so many people outside on such a cold day. Yamaguchi had suggested getting some hot tea and ramen to warm themselves up and Tsukishima couldn’t deny that it was a good idea. He’d be the one who had to buy the tea, but he didn’t have a problem with that considering that Yamaguchi was the one paying for the food that day. He knew that Yamaguchi wouldn’t mind getting the tea if he was short on change, mostly because Tsukishima knew that he didn’t make a fuss over a lot, but the tea at their favourite shop wasn’t too expensive. There was no way that Yamaguchi would go there regularly if it was.

Lately, though, Tsukishima had noticed that his friend was acting differently and only when it was just the two of them. Yamaguchi had taken to complaining whenever Tsukishima wore his headphones, even though Tsukishima had constantly worn his headphones for quite a long time. He didn’t know what had prompted the sudden change in his friend, but that just meant that Tsukishima would have to observe Yamaguchi to find out. He knew he could always try asking him, but sometimes Yamaguchi danced around the subject and did all that he could to avoid giving an answer. The easiest thing to do would be to get inside Yamaguchi’s head to try to get some semblance to the way he was thinking, but since this was physically impossible, Tsukishima was left with the only other alternative he saw: to try to look at things from Yamaguchi’s view.

“They aren’t even plugged into anything….” Tsukishima said to himself.

Deciding that he should hurry and hold up his end of the bargain, he turned and crossed the street to a small convenience store that sold Yamaguchi’s favourite sodas. He hadn’t asked what flavor he wanted, but Tsukishima had gotten pretty good at guessing for things when it came to his best friend.

After purchasing the drinks and standing in a very long line for the hot teas, Tsukishima sent a quick text to Yamaguchi about the meeting place before taking off in the direction of the park near their houses. Reaching the park a few minutes later, he sat down on a picnic table underneath a pavilion and turned his attention to the people nearby.

It was one of his favourite past times. Anyone who knew Tsukishima knew that he liked to watch people and observe situations. His brother would sometimes find him watching junior volleyball matches and analyzing the players, trying to determine the best way each of them could play. People watching in the park was a bit different, though, but Tsukishima and Yamaguchi had long since decided that this would be their meeting place if they were ever going somewhere together.

He pulled out his phone and slid the headphone jack into the correct slot before selecting a song at random and turning his attention to the park. It was quite vacant, which wasn’t surprising considering the cold weather. Yet there were just enough people to watch so that Tsukishima was occupied while he waited for Yamaguchi. While he liked to people watch at school, it was a little boring with the same people every day.

He never got tired of watching Yamaguchi, though.

Tsukishima had no idea if Yamaguchi knew how much he watched him. Not in a creepy sense and Tsukishima hoped that he didn’t come across as that. But even after all the years they’d been friends, he was still learning new things about Yamaguchi, despite how close they’d become. There was a certain curious fascination that hadn’t been there when they first met and Tsukishima wanted to know why. He didn’t feel this way about any of his other friends and while he knew what this feeling was, there was one other thing he wanted to be sure of before he said anything about it to Yamaguchi. It was exactly why Tsukishima wished that he could take a peak inside Yamaguchi’s mind.

The problem was that he wasn’t always the most observant person and could even be downright oblivious to the most obvious things. There were times at practice when their teammates were hinting for him to do something before Tsukishima had to bluntly tell him what they were talking about. It made Tsukishima that much more hesitant to say anything because while Yamaguchi usually believed him and knew what he was talking about, Tsukishima wasn’t sure he wanted to say anything like that and run the risk of Yamaguchi interpreting it in a completely different way.

“What a troublesome situation I’ve found myself in.”

Adjusting the volume on his phone, he started to look around for any sign of his friend. He didn’t usually take this long and Tsukishima had to wonder if he was being held up by something. He hadn’t responded to his earlier text, which was a bit worrisome. Yamaguchi always responded quickly to texts, even when they were texting in the middle of the night and both parties should have been sleeping. It was growing dark quickly, the only lights coming from the nearby lamps that were scattered throughout the park. It was a bit difficult to see under the pavilion, but it would be fine for an early dinner. Even if it was far too cold to be eating outside in the first place.

It was only a few minutes later when Yamaguchi dashed under the pavilion and skidded to a halt where Tsukishima was lying on the table. Clearly he’d gotten bored and had decided that lying on the table was a more comfortable way to watch people rather than sitting down on the bench like a person normally would.

“Lying on the table again?” Yamaguchi wasn’t really that surprised.

“Everything okay?” Tsukishima sat up and slid down so that he was sitting on the proper part of the table, giving Yamaguchi a concerned look.

“Yeah, the line was just really long.” Yamaguchi sat down across from Tsukishima and started to divide the food. “And I ran into Kageyama and Hinata on the way back.”

“They didn’t want to join us, did they?” Tsukishima twisted the headphone cords around his index finger.

“Hinata did, but Kageyama talked him out of it.” Yamaguchi shook his head. “I think he thought this was a date, too. Maybe that’s why Kageyama was so insistent on refusing.”

“Why would he think that?” Tsukishima tried to feign disinterest, but he wasn’t sure it was working. “What did you tell him?”

“That it wasn’t?” Yamaguchi looked up at Tsukishima. “This isn’t a date, is it?”

Tsukishima thought for a second before speaking.

“Obviously not since we’re each paying for the food.”

Seemingly satisfied, Yamaguchi nodded and returned to the food, though Tsukishima could tell that something was still bothering him. Anyone else wouldn’t have noticed, but they’d known each other so long that it hit Tsukishima like a freight train.

“Hey, you didn’t actually go to the ramen shop,” he decided to ignore it, knowing that asking Yamaguchi about it would get him nowhere, and picked up one of the cartons of food and checked the contents.

“The line was out the door, so I went to our second usual place,” Yamaguchi said. “I knew what you usually get, so it wasn’t an issue.”

“Am I really that predictable?” Tsukishima remembered the sodas and tea and brought them up from the bench to the tabletop.

“I just know you that well.” Yamaguchi grinned. “Oh, but I realized that I forgot to give you my drink order, though.”

“So I got to pick for you,” Tsukishima pulled two bottles of soda from the plastic bag and handed them to Yamaguchi.

“How’d you know I wanted grapefruit?” Yamaguchi accepted the bottles and set them down next to his food.

“Because I know you that well,” Tsukishima offered him a small smile as he repeated Yamaguchi’s words. “And you’ve been drinking it a lot lately. It’s not that hard to miss.”

“I guess I have,” Yamaguchi said before he turned his attention to the teas. “So which one is mine and which is yours?”

“Yours.” Tsukishima slid a warm mug of tea towards Yamaguchi. “I’ve been drinking out of mine.”

“And it still feels warm, too.” Yamaguchi rubbed his hands together. “Really, I wish we could eat inside sometimes.”

“You’re the one who always likes to drink hot tea outside in the cold, remember?” Tsukishima said, recalling a time in grade school when they both caught colds from drinking tea outside in the snow.

“It tastes better if you do!” Yamaguchi said defensively as he started to eat. He looked back at Tsukishima and said, “You’re still wearing the headphones, you know.”

Groaning in complaint, Tsukishima took off the headphones and let them hang around his neck.

“I think I know why you wear them all the time, though.” Yamaguchi said as Tsukishima went to his phone to turn off the music.

“Oh yeah?” Tsukishima arched an eyebrow.

“They’re the way you observe the world.” Yamaguchi said simply.

“Meaning?” Tsukishima leaned his elbow on the table.

“I don’t think you listen to music much with them. I mean, I know you do sometimes, but not all the time.” Yamaguchi drank some of his tea and held his hands to the mug, trying to absorb the warmth. “You use them so people won’t talk to you and that lets you analyze people easier.”

“And how do you figure that?” Tsukishima pushed his glasses up his nose.

“Because I know you well enough to know when you’re actually listening to music.” Yamaguchi stabbed at a piece of chicken with his chopstick. “You have a certain look in your eyes when you’re listening to music and when you’re watching people, you look so focused that I don’t think anything short of an explosion could break your concentration.” He looked down and said, “You have a completely different look when you’re looking at me, though, and it gets really confusing, you know?”

“You got me.” Tsukishima rubbed the back of his neck, hoping that Yamaguchi would think that his face was growing pink because of the cold. “But you know I don’t mean anything bad by it, right?”

“Oh, I know.” Yamaguchi said with a smile. “If you had something to say, you’d just flat out say it.”

“I still don’t see what’s wrong with that.” Tsukishima shrugged.

“I just can’t figure out why you’d want to watch me all the time.” Yamaguchi sighed in frustration. “I mean, I’m not so interesting of a person that you’d want to analyze me, right?”

Tsukishima thought it would have been obvious, but he didn’t say anything. He knew the answer to Yamaguchi’s question, even if it was a bit embarrassing for him to admit it. There was one thing he had left to do and he couldn’t bring himself to tell Yamaguchi. Not yet.

_Because I want to see how you see me._


End file.
